(LUNCH DAY ONE)
83-5
A surge of boundaries made the pitch look good and the chance of NZ victory look slim after PAK won the toss and batted
The woeful Shoaib Malik, Peter Fulton and Grant Elliot were missing from the line-ups
Tim Southee returned (21st birthday today) and got an in-swinger through Salman Butt early
Ian O'Brien, retiring after this game, proceeded to extract the little assistence there was in the pitch and edged out 4 wickets for just 3 runs in an amazing spell of aggressive, accurate bowling. He was good enough to get captain Yousuf, Imran Akmal and Misbah-ul-Haq for ducks
the rest of the session included a panicked batting display
OBSERVATIONS
- The pitch is VERY GOOD, there is some bounce yes but it is pretty flat and looks a beauty to bat on
- The tumble of wickets was due to pressure and VERY POOR shot selection
- The chaos extended to the commentary box as well. Martin Crowe and Simon Doull were very hit-and-miss with their analysis. Crowe tried to explain away Yousuf's dismissal (poor cut shot) as due to age - PLEASE if anything that should have been why he wouldn't play such a bad stroke
- The problem seemed to be of the mind for PAK, with the reputation of Napier as a batting paradise they tried to hit far too many boundaries and paid the price
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